"We need a hobby."

My wife April and I decided one day that we needed something else in our lives besides our work that is not just sitting around staring at a TV; something that would get us out of the house and allow us to meet people and enjoy the fine scenery that is the Carolinas.

The Idea.

We thought a little bit about it and decided we would visit every barbecue restaurant within 100 miles of Rock Hill, South Carolina. Where shall we go? We started out by deciding on the places we would NOT include. Unfortunately, fire department barbecue was excluded. While it is tasty it isn’t necessarily consistent and sometimes very hard to find. A tour of NC/SC fire department barbecue could be a quest in itself.

You have to have a good base....

We both grew up eating local barbecue in our home towns and tend to hold all others to their high standard. So we decided to focus on restaurants that specialized in barbecue. We prefer the family owned joints to the chains, but agreed that even the chains deserved a visit and fair review. Each restaurant has to have its own smoker or pit. Homemade sauces, while delicious are not a requirement. We are both much more interested in the taste of the smoked meat without sauce at first. Sauces should add to the smoked flavor of the meat not change it dramatically or hide it.

100 Mile Search

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Sunday, May 31, 2009

Lane: Firebonz is bright, well lit, and decorated red, white, and blue. It has a full bar and a great environment, and is very clean and modern. The restaurant is very family friendly despite the full bar, but with the family setting it gets a little noisy at times. The Phillies were playing the Red Sox (for a win) so April was pretty happy (Firebonz has great large flat screen TVs with un-obstructed views). The good news: I had a sliced bar-b- q sandwich with very good sides, Mac and cheese, coleslaw, and a Cottonwood Nut Brown Ale.

April: This is a chain restaurant in Rock Hill and is very popular with the York County Democrats as they have their monthly meetings here. We visited on a Saturday evening. While the restaurant is fairly large, it was very crowded and very loud. Despite sitting across the table from my husband it was difficult to carry on a conversation. There were large screen TV’s, music, and lots of people. As for the food, it was on the mediocre side. The fried pickles are spears, not chips and this fact is not included on the menu. They were very good and served with the requisite side of ranch. I ordered the chopped pork sandwich. The meat has a great pink smoke ring and is on the sweet side. Firebonz has six different sauces that sit on the table for your choosing. They range from mustard to vinegar to molasses based. The barbeque was a little dry, so experimenting with the different sauces was good. I wonder if this is purposeful? We shared an order of banana pudding for dessert. While the presentation of this dish is impressive, do no waste your money or your daily sugar allotment on it. There was a lot of whipped cream and a lot of really bad banana pudding and no bananas.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

April: We were encouraged to try this new chain restaurant just over the border in Charlotte, NC by a colleague. The restaurant hails from Alabama and is beginning to expand into numerous states. My dinner choices included the Brunswick Stew and pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw. As for the stew, it had tomatoes, but was not a tomato base. It was heavy with the creamed corn and potatoes. The stew meat was mainly pork and chicken. It was tasty, but not spicy and more creamy soup like than stew like. The pulled pork had a nice smoke ring and was moist. The taste was good and smoky but not spicy. There are two sauces to choose from on the table; one sweet and one mild. Both were horrible. I have never been more disappointed in a barbecue sauce than I was in these. The pork was much better off without it. I will say that the service in this restaurant was fantastic and it is very family friendly. I know that Lane’s ribs were some of the best we have had. We were so full from the meal that we shared a left over spare rib with Daisy when we got home. She licked a greasy spot on her bed the size of a dinner plate eating that thing. She was one happy dog!

Lane: The Smoked Pork Hot Links, served with saltines and pimento cheese were amazingly good. I have not had an appetizer like that in a long, long time. Too long in fact, actually. I coupled my half rack of spare ribs with macaroni and cheese (Mac the cheese) and coleslaw as my sides, the Mac was very creamy, with gouda blended with cheddar cheese. April got the pulled pork barbeque served with the garlic bread and collard greens. April washed hers down with Dorothy's Ice tea while I enjoyed Dave's lemonade.